The separation of food products without casings is often accomplished on conveying devices, in particular conveying belts, which are disposed downstream of a filling machine or a filling flow divider. In the process, the food products are supplied to the cutting element in one or more paths.
Different cutting methods are already known. To obtain a straight cut, the conveying belt is often stopped while the length is being cut through. However, the stopping times are detrimental as the product flow must be interrupted at each cutting operation to produce a straight cut.
There are also machines where the product flow is not stopped for this reason and the separating element moves through the length as quickly as possible. The higher the product to be separated, the more “oblique” is the cut as the product always moves horizontally and it is not possible to make the vertical motion of the knife infinitely small. Such products are at least in some cases rejected by the consumers for optical reasons.
It is already known from EP 1 767 096 B1 that the knife is moved along in synchronism with the length. In this case, it is disposed on an orbit where the horizontal and vertical motions depend on each other and cannot be controlled independently. So, the disadvantage here is that the vertical cutting speed depends on the horizontal speed of the product flow. This means in turn that the vertical cutting speed cannot be sufficiently fast. However, only then can a fibrous or tacky product be cleanly cut through. The tacky products tend to adhere to each other when they are transported further. A further disadvantage is that the length is squeezed off on the conveying belt when it moves along. This means that the length cannot be completely cut through as the cutting operation takes place above the belt surface.